Social networking is a paradigm in which groups of members are defined wherein the members interact with each other in desired ways. Typically members of a social network communicate electronically via a social networking service such as FACEBOOK or TWITTER. Members may share images and videos, and may have interactive chat sessions with messaging to select members of their social network.
Since members of social networks often have common interests and socioeconomic status, it is desired to be able to utilize the vast amounts of information available from those members in order to market various products and services. Social networking services that are currently implemented often gather information from their members in a surreptitious manner whereby the members do not even know that their information is being used, or that their activities are being tracked, etc. It is therefore desired to be able to obtain information about the members on a voluntary basis. To do this, it is desired to provide members of social networks with incentives for providing their information and allowing use of that information on a voluntary basis.